Last month, Erie High School’s Model United Nations team made their way to New York City, to attend the National High School Model United Nations Conference. The conference lasted 4 days in total, each day, Erie’s Model UN team met new people from all over the world and worked to solve their committee’s topics.
NHSMUN is a conference open to high school students from all over the world, each high school representing a different country, and students, or delegates in their high school teams will go to different councils and argue on real world issues. This year, Erie’s Model UN team’s country was Croatia, so prior to the conference, students on the team had to study and research Croatia’s policies and laws depending on what their council and issue was.
In Model UN there are many components that go forward to making a successful conference, but most importantly position papers are a huge part, “You have to do a lot of research and make sure that your position paper is good because you reference your position paper a lot, sophomore Addison Wolver commented. These papers are a compilation of research and notes that allow delegates to fully study and understand their countries policies and beliefs while also helping them prepare and know what to say for each council session.
This conference in specific was open to students worldwide, so Erie’s team had the opportunity to meet and befriend people from all over the world. Especially in session, delegates must know how to go up and talk to new people and communicate their ideas, but with Erie’s team this wasn’t a problem at all, “my favorite aspect [of Model UN Conferences] is meeting new people,” Wolver reinforced.
Planning and structure is a huge part when it comes to putting together these kinds of trips, teachers Gabe Fishman and Mackenzie Staurt spent months beforehand working to make this the best trip possible. They organized the majority of the trip and made sure everything ran smoothly. Fishman added, “I also was sort of a chaperone to make sure kids got to where they needed to be, under supervision, getting to their conferences or going out to eat.”
On this trip, Erie’s Model UN team tried to make a big impact on the outcomes of each of their council sessions, and although they didn’t come home with any awards, they came home with a greater understanding of our world’s social and political problems and friends from all over the world.
